Product placement on commercial television has been given the nod by the culture secretary Ben Bradshaw just six months after his predecessor rejected the proposal. So why the change of heart? And why are people exercised about embedded marketing anyway? Those are the questions I ask and try to answer in my London Evening Standard column today

Bob Geldof is aiming to become the main news provider for Northern Ireland. According to today's Financial Times, his Ten Alpsproduction company is bidding to become the region's news supplier when the government reveals plans to replace ITV's existing network

See Jon Stewart take apart the US TV business channel CNBCin this video clip from his Daily Show. Wait for the Allen Stanford moment. There's a longer version at Comedy Central that includes an amazing rant by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli against President Obama's mortgage plan in which he describes home-owners struggling to pay their loans as "losers."

Today's Ofcom report argues that Channel 4 should become part of a new organisation with a strong public service broadcasting remit, and suggests this could be facilitated by giving C4 the £130m-a-year BBC licence fee digital switchover surplus to use as funding to take a stake in BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm. Second idea: C4 could merge with Five

Michael Parkinson has been recalling his days as a reporter with the Manchester Guardian in the 1950s, his memories of working for Granada TV and a host of other memories in a lengthy interview with the Manchester Evening News in advance of signing copies of his autobiography, Parky, at a WH Smith store in the city this evening

Just in case it passed you by, Ed Pilkington's dispatch from New York yesterday, US advertising: McMorning Las Vegas, here's the news, deserves reading. He reveals the insidious growth of product placement into US television news programmes.

Is ITV in play or not? There have been reports that various foreign companies - notably Endemol - are interested in acquiring Britain's ailing commercial broadcaster. But will it be a deal or no deal? I explore that possibility in my London Evening Standard column today.

See this clip of James Harding, editor of The Times, with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Harding, who is plugging his book, Alpha Dogs: The Americans who turned political spin into a global business, acquits himself very well. Example: he gets wild applause for saying that the US should be engaged in the issue of Zimbabwe.

The Egyptian authorities have intensified their onslaught on satellite broadcasters and journalists, according to IFEX members. Last week, security forces raided Cairo News Company, which leases services about 40 satellite channels in Egypt, and seized broadcasting equipment. Three satellite TV channels - Al Hiwar, Al Baraka, and Al Hikma - have been banned. The blackouts come at a time when soaring food prices are causing demonstrations that are receiving little coverage in the mainstream media. Journalists and bloggers who tried to cover the protests have been detained. (Via IFEX)

ITV does not see the online world as a competitor but wants to make use of all the promotional and commercial opportunities it offers, according to the broadcaster's marketing director David Pemsel. Speaking at yesterday's Thinkbox event, he used ITV's marketing strategy for Secret Diary of A Call Girl as an example of ITV's new approach to the net.

Virgin Media claims it is not trying to muddy the waters by appealing against the Competition Commission's decision in ordering BSkyB to reduce its stake in ITV . But has Virgin got a reasonable case? That's the question I ask in my London Evening Standard column today.

US troops have detained the news editor of Iraq's leading Shiite-run television station. They raided the Baghdad home of Hafidh al-Beshara, manager of political programming for Al-Forat TV, in order to capture his 19-year-old son, who is alleged to be linked to Shiite extremist groups. But al-Beshara was held as well after a machine gun was found. A US military spokesman said the detentions were not related to Al-Forat's output. (Via ABC)

US media watcher Eric Boehlert predicts that Rupert Murdoch's controversial TV channel Fox News is in for a rough year. Among his reasons: CNN has made a comeback as "the go-to cable destination for election coverage"; Fox News has favoured Rudy Giuliani, who has made no headway in his bid for the Republican presidential candidacy; all the Democratic candidates refuse to debate on Fox; and a tasteless attack by a Fox host on actor Heath Ledger hours after he was found dead. To make matters worse for Rupert, the fledgling sister channel, Fox Business Network, has had poor ratings.

Bangladesh's military-backed caretaker government has "asked" private television channels to avoid broadcasting live talk shows. After Ekushey Television received a fax message from the administration it cancelled its scheduled programme and Channel 1 halted the segment of its live talk show involving audience questions. Information secretary Jamil Osman later said that no official direction had been given. The government advises media groups to maintain self-censorship during the state of emergency. (Via Daily Star)

Al-Jazeera journalist Howaida Taha, who is already appealing against a jail sentence in Egypt, has been arrested again while filming a documentary, allegedly without a proper licence. Taha was filming in a low-income district in Cairo when police detained her. Three crew members and an Egyptian human rights activist were also taken into custody. Taha's appeal against a six-month sentence for possessing video tapes that police claim contain fabricated scenes of torture by Egyptian police is expected in two weeks. (Via ABC News)

Alycia Lane, a TV news anchor who allegedly punched a female police officer during a fracas last month, has been fired by Philadelphia's CBS affiliate. The station's president, Michael Colleran, said: "We have concluded that it would be impossible for Alycia to continue to report the news as she, herself, has become the focus of so many news stories. We... are not prejudging the outcome of the criminal case against Alycia that is pending in New York." (Via Media Bistro)

Now here's a fascinating piece of research: a comparative study of the material broadcast during the 2004 presidential campaign by the main US networks and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a satirical programme with a large following. And the result? You guessed. According to the woman who led the research - Julia Fox, assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University - Stewart's show was just as substantive as the network coverage. No wonder the study is called "No joke". Fox says that though it's "clearly a humour show... there is also substantive dialogue going on... It's a legitimate source of news." The networks' coverage contained considerably more hype than substance, she says, adding: "We've been wringing our hands for decades that the networks aren't doing enough substance in the political coverage, so is it any real surprise?" Er, no. (Via Indiana University)

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last night became the first head of state to appear on The Daily Show, the top-rated American TV satire show hosted by Jon Stewart. Having agreed to appear in order to promote his memoir In the Line of Fire, he soon found himself under fire, but handled it with humour. Stewart asked: "Where's Osama bin Laden?'' Musharraf replied: "I don't know...you know where he is? You lead on, we'll follow you.''

A couple of political scientists argue that Jon Stewart's hit TV satire programme The Daily Show makes young people cynical about politics and politicians, and could lead them to abstain from voting. The East Carolina University academics made their claims after testing college students' reactions to various video clips of coverage of the 2004 presidential candidates compared to their reactions after watching Stewart's show. The results, revealed in the latest issue of American Politics Research, showed that the participants rated candidates more negatively after watching Stewart. This sounded unusually one-sided until I read Marty Kaplan's blog pointing out that reading the study puts the results in an entirely different light. Good for Marty. (Via washingtonpost.com and huffingtonpost.com)